HELSINKI (AP) – Rescuers in Norway continued to search for 10 people on Thursday, including children, who were missing a day after a massive landslide hit a residential area near the capital.
Time is running out to find survivors in destroyed buildings, amid the winter weather. Authorities said it was too dangerous to send ground rescue patrols to the devastated area of Ask village in Gjerdrum, about 25 kilometers northeast of Oslo. Instead, the search was carried out with the help of helicopters, drones and thermal cameras.
“We still hope to find people and save lives,” police spokesman Dag Andre Sylju told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
No casualties were reported, but about 10 people were injured, one seriously, in what Prime Minister Erna Solberg called “probably one of the largest landslides we have ever had.”
Officials said at least nine apartments with about 30 apartments were destroyed in the landslide early Wednesday.
More than 1,000 people have been evacuated, and officials say up to 1,500 people could be moved out of the area amid landslides.
The landslide crossed a road through Ask, home to about 5,000 people, leaving a deep, crater-like ravine that cars could not cross. Photographs and footage showed dramatic scenes of buildings on the edge of the ravine.
The area is known for having a lot of so-called fast clay, a form of clay that can change from solid to liquid. Experts said the clay substance, combined with excessive rainfall and humid weather, could have contributed to the landslide.
The Norwegian media reported that the authorities in 2005 warned construction companies not to build houses in the area, but eventually houses were built later in the decade.